BOOKS

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Unlike software, music, or video, books aren’t as easy to copy, and they lack mass public appeal, because the average American only reads one book a year (but watches nearly five hours of television a day). However, the ease of copying has changed somewhat with the introduction of both audio books and e-books, which can be swapped as easily as digital files. Despite the growing ease with which people can exchange audio and e-books over the Internet, books are probably the least popular item available on the major file sharing networks.

You can find the more popular audio and e-books over file sharing networks, but you’ll find a much greater selection if you go through one of the legal audio or e-book online stores instead. Such online bookstores tend to stock everything from Bibles and cookbooks to the latest bestsellers in both fiction and non-fiction, along with classic literature and reference works, so if you need to find a little-known book, you’ll probably save time going through one of the websites described in the following sections.

AUDIO BOOKS

Most stores that sell audio books only sell cassettes or CDs, although a handful now sell MP3 files of popular books. If you can’t buy an MP3 version of an audio book, you’ll have to convert the cassette or CD into an MP3 file yourself to play it on a portable MP3 player, such as an iPod.

These are some of the more popular online stores that sell audio books:

Audiobooks Online http://www.audiobooksonline.com

Books on Tape http://www.booksontape.com

Recorded Books http://www.recordedbooks.com

One of the more unique audio websites is Audible (http://www.audible.com), which not only sells audio versions of books, but also audio versions of popular magazines and recordings of public broadcasting radio shows, such as Car Talk or Fresh Air with Terry Gross. If you want to listen to more than just books, Audible is sure to offer something else that you might be interested in hearing.

E-BOOKS

An e-book (short for electronic book) often appears as plain text or in a proprietary file format, such as Adobe Acrobat’s PDF (Portable Document Format) or Microsoft Reader. Proprietary formats protect the text from modification and display text with fancy fonts as if it were printed on a page.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to e-books is that you need to read them using a computer of some sort, such as a laptop or a handheld. Even the lightest handheld computer can be bulky and cumbersome to read for an extended period of time.

Despite these drawbacks, e-books can still be convenient to have when you want something to read without lugging around a handful of books in addition to a computer. Many file sharing networks offer e-books, but like audio books, the selection is limited, so if you want to find an e-book on a specific topic or by a certain author, you’ll probably have better luck visiting one of the following e-book stores where you can buy and download the e-book that you want.

Blackmask Online http://www.blackmask.com

eBooks3 http://www.ebooks3.com

eBooks-Online http://www.ebooks-online.com

FREE E-BOOKS

If you want to find the latest bestseller, you’ll have to visit one of the many websites that sell e-books online. But if you want to read classic literature or browse through old reference or religious texts like the Bible, visit one of the many websites that distribute free public-domain e-books in the form of plain-text files.

These free e-book sites offer e-books on anything that’s no longer copyrighted, such as William Shakespeare’s plays or novels by H.G. Wells. Although plain-text files lack the fancy fonts and formatting that a commercial e-book may provide, they can be read on any computer, and they give you a chance to read some of the greatest literary treasures without having to pay for them. To find a free e-book, visit one of the following websites:

Bartleby http://www.bartleby.com

Bibliomania http://www.bibliomania.com

Books-On-Line http://www.books-on-line.com

Children’s Books Online http://www.childrensbooksonline.org

Children’s Storybooks Online http://www.magickeys.com/books

Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/div/books

netLibrary http://www.netlibrary.com

The Online Books Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books

Page By Page Books http://www.pagebypagebooks.com

Project Gutenberg http://www.promo.net/pg

University of Virginia’s e-Book Library http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ebooklist.html

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